My work assignment is in interim management. It is challenging. I want to preserve the standing, views, and role of the incumbent for as long as he is in the role. I also want to add a bit of value of my own. With the combined, in due course I will hand the role to another. I am not sure I could have done this when I was younger. As I reflect on the joyous wonder of empowering others, I know if it a great assignment for a time in my life where I am looking to give back.
As I struggled to understand what I was trying to achieve, I tried to put myself in the various shoes of those involved. The process changed my perspective and sight. Beyond trying to describe what I saw and felt differently, the greatest change occurred to my view of my role. Initially I was on the scene to drive change. Results measured success. As I look through the eyes of others, I found myself with a new script. I wanted them to be the best! I hoped that they could achieve excellence. I know I cannot do it; it has to come through the sweat and tears of those on the ground. My role is to embed great ideas – letting them make the ideas greater than anything I can imagine. My role is to empower, creating the spaces and processes that allow each to grow and act. The measure of embedding and empowering will be found in execution. It is when each acts for the benefit of the whole, not because an individual is directing or telling. Execution will be born in belief that they is a road worth reaching for.
Their eyes changed my script. It is a change that I owe to each.
I can see change within everyone. I know “God rewrote the text of my life when I opened the book of my heart to his eyes.” (Psalm 18.24) This change is never a one-time event – it is embedded, empowered, and ever repeating.
